Recently, with development of electronic industries and advance of industrial technologies, various electronic devices are designed toward small size, light weightiness and easy portability. Consequently, these electronic devices can be applied to mobile business, entertainment or leisure purposes whenever or wherever the users are. For example, various image capture devices are widely used in many kinds of fields such as smart phones, tablet computers, wearable electronic devices or any other appropriate portable electronic devices. Since the electronic devices are small and portable, users can take the electronic devices to capture images and store the images according to the users' requirements. Furthermore, users can upload the images to the internet through mobile networks in order to transmit data.
The image capture device of the portable electronic device can be used to capture images at any time in order to record the life in pieces. Consequently, most users pay much attention to the image capture device. Moreover, for allowing the image capture devices to be favored by most people, the manufacturers make efforts in increasing the functions of the image capture devices.
Recently, a portable electronic device with the function of capturing panoramic images has been introduced into the market. For example, a RICOH panoramic camera has the function of capturing panoramic images. The panoramic camera has a small size and is easily carried. A front camera module and a rear camera module with the same specification are respectively installed on a front surface and a rear surface of the panoramic camera. The front camera module is used for capturing a 180-degree front image. The rear camera module is used for capturing a 180-degree rear image in the rear side. After the 180-degree front image and the 180-degree rear image are captured, the 180-degree front image and the 180-degree rear image are combined as a 360-degree panoramic image by an image processing module of the panoramic camera. However, this panoramic camera still has some drawbacks. For example, the field of view (FOV) of the front camera module and the field of view (FOV) of the rear camera module should be as wide as possible. As known, the camera module with the wider FOV is not cost-effective and has a bulky volume. Consequently, the camera module with the wider FOV is only applied to the panoramic camera, and is not suitably installed on another portable electronic device (e.g., a smart phone).
Moreover, with increasing development of the portable electronic device, a camera module of the portable electronic device with a panoramic lens is also introduced into the market. The panoramic lens comprises plural lenses in a ring-shaped arrangement. By the panoramic lens, the portable electronic device can capture panoramic images. For example, a GoPano panoramic lens has the function of capturing panoramic images.
Moreover, another panoramic camera with plural lens modules in a ring-shaped arrangement is also introduced into the market. For example, an Olympus panoramic camera is used for capturing plural local images at many angles. After these local images are acquired, these local images are combined as a panoramic image by a built-in image processing module of the panoramic camera. However, since the volume of this panoramic camera is very large, the panoramic camera is not suitably installed on the portable electronic device. The panoramic camera with plural lens modules in a ring-shaped arrangement further includes a Panono spherical panoramic camera or a Squito throwable panoramic camera. The Panono spherical panoramic camera and the Squito throwable panoramic camera are ball-shaped. While the panoramic camera is thrown into the air, plural local images at many angles are captured by the plural lens modules. These local images are combined as a complete panoramic image. The operating principles of the Panono spherical panoramic camera or the Squito throwable panoramic camera are similar to those of the Olympus panoramic camera, and are not redundantly described herein.
Nowadays, some kinds of portable electronic devices such as slim-type mobile phone also have the functions of capturing panoramic images. The smart phone comprises a front camera module and a rear camera module. However, the specifications of the front camera module and the rear camera module are different, and the viewing angles of the front camera module and the rear camera module are smaller than 180 degrees. In other words, the smart phone cannot adopt the operating principle of the RICOH panoramic camera to capture the panoramic images. The smart phone is only able to continuously capture images by using the rear camera module while the smart phone is held by the user's hands and rotated along a horizontal direction. After plural local images are captured, these local images are combined as a complete panoramic image. However, since it is difficult to rotate the mobile phone along the horizontal direction at the constant speed, the local images of the panoramic image usually have different widths.
Therefore, there is a need of allowing an optical apparatus with a panoramic function to be integrated into a portable electronic device in order to overcome the above drawbacks, while in the meantime, more functions may be able to include additionally.